Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (ISSN 0975-2935) Indexed by Web of Science, Scopus, DOAJ, ERIHPLUS Vol. 12, No. 6, December, 2020. 1-14 Full Text: http://rupkatha.com/V12/n6/v12n620.pdf DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.20 Costume as a Form of Visualization of Ethnicity: From Tradition to Modernity Daria Yurievna Ermilova Russian State University of Tourism and Service. Email: [email protected] Abstract The article traces the transformation of visualization of a person’s ethnicity through costumes – from traditional to modern. The object of the study is to understand the costume as an informational and sign structure. The topic of the study is the visualization of ethnicity through costumes from a historical perspective. The study aims to identify the specific characteristics of visualization of ethnicity in traditional and modern costumes. The study hypothesis is that, unlike traditional costumes that demonstrated regional and national affiliation, modern “Western” clothing has mostly lost these functions. Although in some regions costumes are still relevant as a “living” tradition, national clothing is disappearing from everyday life. Ethnic style using regional and national traditions as a source of stylization does not present an indicator of a person’s nationality. Nevertheless, some examples of modern clothing visualizing ethnicity can be found. The functional and semiotic approaches to the analysis of costumes serve as the basis of the study. Since the late Middle Ages, the development of urban dress in Western Europe has been determined by fashion rather than tradition. In Russia, the process of an urban costume losing the function of visualization of ethnicity began with the reforms of Peter the Great and for peasants’ costumes, this process did not start until the middle of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century, traditional costumes were mostly worn by ethnic minorities as a symbol of national identity and self-affirmation. Referring to others’ traditions as a source of fashion innovations led to the emergence of ethnic style. Ethnic style is characterized by a superficial attitude towards the source. Ethnodesign, on the other hand, follows the principle of deep and thoughtful care about the tradition which gains relevance due to the rise of glocalization manifesting in the intensification of regional differences. Although the proponents of ethnodesign insist on the ability of design to integrate traditional ethnic symbols into modern culture, the question is about the ability of modern people to understand the meanings contained in traditional forms remains. The present article identifies the cases of a costume serving the function of visualization of ethnicity in modern society. Keywords: visualization, ethnicity, traditional costume, ethnodesign, modern costume, functions of a costume. Introduction Since the Paleolithic times, a costume has been the most important means of human identification, visual and instant. This function of a costume did not lose its relevance by the beginning of the 21st century – a costume allows one to decide an individual’s social group. For example, an anthropologist K. Fox describes various nuances of social differences in modern clothes of British people (Fox 2004, 424). Both traditional and modern costumes present informational and sign structures: “Clothing as a phenomenon of visual culture presents an informative sign structure that has both basic and flexible, constantly changing elements” (Liausheva 2019 , 104). © AesthetixMS 2020. This Open Access article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For citation use the DOI. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected]. 2 Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 12, No. 6, 2020 According to the principles of the ecology of culture, the relevance of ethno- and eco-design as well as the problems of preservation of regional and national traditions and the uniqueness of material culture call for studying the problem of visualization of ethnicity in modern society, particularly in costumes as ancient and descriptive identity marker. The goal of the present study is to identify the specific characteristics of identity visualization in traditional and modern costumes. In ancient times, a person’s costume allowed them to identify their clan and tribe (for example, in the costumes of the Celtic peoples, the role of a clan identifier was played by the “tartan” pattern of the fabric of plaids and kilts among Scottish people). In traditional societies, ethnicity was primarily identified based on a person’s appearance, specifically their costume, both by their fellows and “foreigners”. However, foreigners could not “read” all the information about the wearer demonstrated by the costume. The sign function of a traditional costume (national costume, ethnic costume, traditional folk clothing) was as important as the magical function. Moreover, some scientists interpret traditional costumes as an example of the non-verbal text of the culture of the people (19). The sign function of traditional clothing is studied in the classical works of P.G. Bogatyrev and G.S. Maslova. Among other functions of a traditional costume, P.G. Bogatyrev indicates a regional function and a function of indication of religion (Bogatyrev 1971, 340). A famous Soviet ethnographer N.I. Gagen- Torn directly calls folk clothing “a person’s passport”. Each element of a costume, its color, and ornament performed magical, symbolic, and sign functions. In traditional society, a costume was a part of ritual practices. Traditional costumes serve these functions for millennia and preserved them to the present day, especially in the countries where people adhere to the traditional way of life. The traditional costumes’ function of demonstration of national and regional affiliation has been thoroughly studied and continues to interest modern researchers both in the general sense, in the works of O.A. Boeva, N.M. Kalashnikova, and E.E. Levkievskaia and concerning the costumes of a specific region, for instance, in I.G. Petrov, M.M. Sodnompilova, A. Fieschi, H.C. Ross, etc. The various aspects of visualization of ethnic identity in modern costumes were examined by C. Seeling, S.A. Liausheva and T.S. Pozdniakova, and A.V. Vasilchenko. V.E. Dobrovolskaia conducted a comparative analysis of the sign functions of traditional and modern costumes. The issues of regional design and ethnodesign were researched by K.A. Kondrateva, A.A. Golovnev, O.N. Danilova, M.S. Kukhta, and T.V. Poidina. The problem of glocalization and its influence on modern material culture was established in the works of M. Cleveland and M. Laroche. Materials and methods The study implements the functional and semiotic approaches to analyse costumes as informational and sign structures, as well as art history and stylistic analysis of traditional costumes, European fashionable costumes, and modern clothing in the “Western” societies. The adopted definition of the concept of “clothing” is “a system of non-verbal means of communication contributing to a more active interaction between people as their position in space and time changes” (21, p. 121). The conclusions are made by analysing the development of European tradition in clothing that became a global mark at the beginning of the 21st century. The aspects of visualization of ethnicity in modern costumes were examined by the example of ethnic style in design, as well as regional or ethnodesign. 3 Costume as a Form of Visualization of Ethnicity: From Tradition to Modernity Results In some regions of the world, traditional costumes present a “living” tradition and the representatives of the ethnos in question wear it in their daily life (often at the same time as European clothing, as in India) preserving its functions – not only the social ones but also the age- related, magical, ritual, ceremonial, etc. – such regions include South America, India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Even in technologically advanced Japan, despite the reorientation towards Western fashion that occurred after World War II, kimonos are worn in certain situations (Fieschi 2002, 128). In the USSR, traditional costumes were preserved in Central Asia, the Caucasus, by some indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far North, and many ethnic groups in rural areas which was determined by the conservative lifestyle of the peasantry. In modern Russia, traditional costumes are worn alongside fashionable ones in the North Caucasus and Dagestan and by the peoples of Siberia and the Far North who follow a traditional way of life – for example, nomadic reindeer herders – the Nenets of Yamal (Golovnev 2017, 6-15). During a certain point of time, the costumes of Western Europe were also traditional ones – from the costumes of the ancient Celts and Germans to the costumes of the early Middle Ages. In the late Middle Ages, the development of urban costumes started to determine a new social phenomenon of fashion which emerged at the end of the 12th century under the influence of the “urban revolution” and the Crusades (Ermilova 2019, 6-7). A fashionable costume presents the opposite of a traditional one as it has gradually lost many of its functions: the age-related, magical, ritualistic, the function of identification of marital status, etc. The demonstration of social status became its main function. The costumes of Western Europe started to differ from the costumes of other regions in its cut that changed under the influence of fashion (the 13th century was marked by the “revolution in the cut” which consisted in the fact that tailors learned to create sweeps of volumetric shapes on a plane using darts and reliefs) which can be considered a “European tradition” in clothing (Ermilova 2019, 120-131). Fashion largely depended on the social class and the authorities tried to restrain the imitation of the noble bourgeoisie via legislative measures.